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CNN Is Ending John King’s Political Show

2:40 p.m. | Updated The ailing cable news channel CNN on Wednesday announced the end of “John King, USA,” its 6 p.m. political news program.

The program will be replaced at the end of the month by “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” which will expand from two hours to three hours. Mr. Blitzer’s program currently precedes Mr. King’s, beginning at 4 p.m.

Ken Jautz, the executive in charge of CNN, said in an internal memo that the schedule change was made to improve political coverage this year. Mr. King will be the network’s top campaign correspondent for the remainder of the presidential election cycle. He had a similar role during the 2008 presidential election cycle.

“This is John’s seventh presidential campaign, fourth with CNN, and making him available across our programming lineup allows us to better tap his skills and experience, especially on the ground reporting in major battleground states and among critical voting blocs,” said Mr. Jautz, referring to Mr. King.

“John King, USA” was started in the spring of 2010 as a showcase for Mr. King and for CNN’s political news-gathering. It struggled to pick up a loyal audience, mirroring CNN’s problems across the board in relatively quiet news periods.

The news channel is under pressure from its parent company, Time Warner, to improve its programming and ratings.

Mr. King said in an email message to Talking Points Memo that when he was asked to host a weekday show, “we were always clear it would be temporary — daily newscast anchoring is not what I am built do do.”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed the program didn’t perform better,” he added.

In a message on Twitter, he said that after June 29, when his program ends, “I get to do what I love: coming soon to a battleground state near you!”